Baxter County and the city of Mountain Home have some of the lowest sales tax rates in the state, a study of statewide tax rates reveals

Baxter County and the city of Mountain Home have some of the lowest sales-tax rates in the state, a study of statewide tax rates reveals. Furthermore, those rates would remain well within the median for the Natural State should voters approve three proposed sales tax increases on Sept. 12.

Baxter County presently collects a 1 percent sales-and-use tax, with the county keeping 57.6 percent of that revenue and the remainder being divided among the county’s cities based on their population. Mountain Home, along with six other Baxter County municipalities, collects a 1 percent sales and use tax on purchases. Cotter collects a 2 percent sales tax on purchases.

On Sept. 12, Baxter County voters will vote on two sales tax proposals to expand the Baxter County Detention Facility and fund its continued operation. The first would be a 1 percent countywide sales tax that would begin March 1, 2018 and be collected through Oct. 31, 2018. The second would be a 0.25 percent sales tax that would go into effect on Nov. 1, 2018 and continue to be collected thereafter.

Also on Sept. 12, Mountain Home voters will be asked to approve a three-eighths (0.375) of a percent sales tax to help fund the Mountain Home fire and police departments.

Buy Photo

The 100-bed Baxter County Detention Center has averaged 92 inmates per day in 2017, and Sheriff John Montgomery would like to add an additional 40 to 50 beds to the facility.(Photo: Scott Liles/The Baxter Bulletin)

Early voting for both the jail expansion tax and the Mountain Home public safety tax are now underway at the Baxter County Courthouse. Early voting is available there through Monday, with 22 precincts being open around the county from 7:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 12.

Out of the 75 counties in Arkansas, 51 presently levy more than 1 percent in sales tax. Locally, Fulton County (2 percent), Marion County (1.75 percent) and Searcy County (1.5 percent) each levy more sales tax than Baxter County. Stone County also collects a 1 percent sales tax and Izard County collects a 0.5 percent sales tax.

If the 1 percent jail expansion sales tax is approved, the additional sales tax would tie the county with Fulton County for the region’s highest sales tax rate. But that rate would only be in effect for eight months, and the county’s tax would then drop to 1.25 percent, assuming voters also approve the quarter-percent sales tax to fund the jail’s operation. That tax rate would leave Baxter County where it currently is, ranked fourth amongst local counties in the percentage of sales tax that is levied.

“Baxter County is a tough climate for a tax increase. You’re always going to have that,” County Judge Mickey Pendergrass said. “But we have a plan, we know exactly what we’re going to do with the money. Nobody wants the criminals to be able to walk the streets.”

Of Arkansas’ 75 counties, 15 presently levy more than 2 percent in sales taxes, and 44 counties levy more than 1.25 percent in sales tax. Cleveland County levies the highest county sales tax in the state at 3.25 percent, while two counties – Monroe and Saline – collect no county sales tax.

Almost every city in the Twin Lakes Area collected at least 1 percent in municipal sales tax, with several neighboring cities (Mountain View, Melbourne and Yellville) collecting sales tax at 2 percent.

“If you go somewhere else to shop or eat, you’ll see we are pretty good,” Mountain Home Mayor Joe Dillard said. “Mountain Home adopted a 1 percent sales tax in 1981. Since that time, revenue has grown but the demand for services has grown as well.”

Mountain Home’s municipal tax rate would rise to 1.375 percent if voters approve the public safety tax on Sept. 12. That number would nudge the city ahead of the sales tax rate collected in Harrison (1.25 percent), but would not affect its standing amongst the other cities mentioned.

“A sales tax shifts the burden to the users who come here,” Dillard said. “If a visitor has a problem while they are here – a wreck, a theft, they get sick – our people will be responding. We’ve got good services, but it takes tax money to keep it operating.”